


Tinea

by CyanideRain



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: AU, Butterflies, F/M, Fae mothlo ren??, Faerie AU, Mothlo Ren, Moths, ReyBen, Reylo - Freeform, Reylo Monster Week, The Fae, Tumblr Prompt, vague skywalker mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 06:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16444970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyanideRain/pseuds/CyanideRain
Summary: Lepidopterist Rey Jakku stumbles upon a new species of moths on the newly discovered island Mustafar. But the island, and the moths themselves, harbor an earth-shattering secret in the form of the King of Moths.





	Tinea

It wasn’t every day that a new species was discovered. Even less common was the discovery of new insects. And the least common, in Rey’s opinion, was the discovery of butterflies and moths. She and her crew had been traipsing through the volcanic island of Mustafar for over two months now in search of new flying insects.  
She was an entomologist and one of the leading lepidopterists in the field. There was something about butterflies and moths that had absolutely fascinated her ever since she was a child. Maybe it was the way they moved, so freely flying. The reason really didn’t matter as much right now.  
Almost all her partners in crime had come along the expedition. Kaydel Connix, their lab computer specialist, had opted to stay at base to monitor the groups movements throughout the large island as well as track and examine samples that had been sent back. Her husband, Poe Dameron, was their geographer and cartographer extraordinaire. Finn Leber was their main biologist and his girlfriend, Rose Tico, was their equipment specialist. They made up the head team for Skywalker Corporations. The business had always generously funded them, and the twins had paid a pretty penny for the sole rights of researching the newly discovered island.  
A cry jolted Rey from her reminiscing. She glanced around, unease growing as she realized her companions had diverged from her. She couldn’t even hear them stomping around in the undergrowth.  
“Oh, this is bad,” she breathed. She tried calling their names to no avail. Her phone had no service and the tablets they used to communicate with base were all in Rose’s backpack. She reached for the walkie-talkie on her belt, but there was no feedback indicating it was working.  
Something was interfering with the signal.  
“Shit, _shit_ ,” She huffed, kicking at the dirt. She began to head back in the general direction of their parked all-terrain vehicles, cursing her daydreaming tendencies.  
After some time, she came upon what looked to be some sort of ruins. The beat of her heart was deafening. They would have to call in archaeologist and paleontologists and all the works. These were _human_ ruins, surely. No animals could create such statues and crumbling doorways. At least, none the world knew of.  
She slipped across the stone gateway and stumbled into a vast meadow, unlike any she had ever seen before. She wasn’t a botanist by any means, but flowers at least fifteen feet tall were surely something new. As she spun around, a swarm of red moths ascended from the ground and fluttered around her. Rey made her way to the center of the flowers, following a barely-there path.  
“Diurnal moths,” she mused, surprised when one landed on her offered hand. She gently brought the insect closer to her face for inspection. The body was black with a crimson iridescence in the sunlight. Their wings were a brilliant red, two faux yellow eyes adorning the forewings. The hindwings were the same red but had deep purple veins, and they lengthened into yellow tails. The moth itself was large, easily engulfing the size of her hand.  
“Oh, and what do we have here?” she breathed. It felt as if the world had stopped. The fluttering of the insects’ wings died as they remained suspended in time, much like the flowers that had halted their swaying. The scenery around her seemed to flicker and ripple.  
It looked like there were two images before her, one superimposed onto the other. She could see the vines that choked the ruins, yet she could also see the stone creations in all their glory, surrounding the field. The stems of the flowers had faded so much so that they looked barely there. Rather, they seemed to be floating around. And the moths had a faint luminescence that was unlike anything she had seen before. They left trails what looked to be red dust as they fluttered around. The duality of their movement and frozenness in these two separate but united landscapes was disorienting.  
Then a voice cut through her confusion.  
_“The Aurelian has risen.”_  
She jerked back, and the world snapped itself back together much like a rubber band returning to its original shape. She began to hyperventilate. It couldn’t have been real. There must be some type of hallucinogen in the air from the massive flowers or something. She had to get back to camp.  
She stumbled along back to the stone opening. She had just passed under it when she fell onto something. There was a breathy, feminine grunt. She knew that voice.  
“Rose!” Rey cried. Relief flooded her limbs as she jerked herself away from her friend. “I had lost you all,” she continued as her alarm began to evaporate.  
“I know,” the woman huffed, wiggling away to stand. As she gained her footing, she offered a hand to Rey. She took it gratefully as Rose helped haul her to her feet.  
_“Dameron to Jakku.”_  
_“Leber to Tico.”_  
Simultaneously, both the women’s walkie-talkies went off. Rose frowned at that. “We’ve been calling for over an hour trying to reach you, Rey. And these damn walkie-talkies are supposed to have a fifty-mile radius at _minimum_.” The disapproval was clear in her voice, but Rey knew it stemmed from a place of worry.  
An hour? She gave her friend a wide-eyed look. “M-My walkie wasn’t working just now! I couldn’t contact you guys, and I got lost. I don’t even know how.”  
“I know how, missy. You weren’t paying attention! I swear, next time we’ll tie you to one of us or something. It’s not like it’s the first time we’ve lost you, but this was too lengthy for all of our standards.”  
Rey felt guilt wash over her. “I’m sorry. But!”  
Rose perked up at that, interest lighting her eyes.  
“I think I may have discovered a new species of moths. And plants? And human ruins.”  
At the slack jaw of her friend, Rey knew all was forgiven.

It had taken about half an hour for the team members to make it to the girls’ location. Once there, the animated chatter was almost deafening. Rey claimed naming rights for the moths, but the plants were free game. The team seemed to be excited to vote on a title. People kept coming up to her, excited to know what she was going to call her new insects.  
“Let me sleep on it,” she kept insisting. But her colleagues were persistent.  
They scoured the sight until twilight. Poe and Connix marked their position for the trek the team would make the next day after much needed rest. Rey couldn’t get to sleep fast enough. As soon as her head hit her pillow, she was dead to the world.

She found herself back in the forest of tall flowers. Now, however, their every movement created an eerie melody. The hairs on the back of Rey’s neck stood in warning, but all else seemed still. She trailed the path, fingers lightly touching the flowers as she passed. There were her newfound scattered moths everywhere with that same ethereal quality she had seen earlier. She reached the edge of the field, staring into the blackness of the trees with trepidation.  
From the darkness there was a hum. Of interest? Disgust? She couldn’t quite tell. “I was beginning to wonder when you would appear.”  
At the same voice from earlier, she gave a small cry of surprise. Into the moonlight stepped forth a man. From behind him were wings much like the moths. His, however, seemed to be alive. The purple veins of the hindwings seemed to sliver like running water. The yellow eyes of the forewings blinked owlishly at her occasionally.  
“ _Fucking hell_ ,” she breathed, torn between fear and awe.  
He had on a satin cape, pooling around the ground. He was in all black, save dark red gloves. Down his chin and neck ran a scar. His eyes were dark as well.  
There was an immeasurable sadness to him that made her heart weep.  
He bowed lowly, his wings shifting slightly. The moths around him quivered up at the movement. “It is a privilege to meet you, Aurelian. Your legends are still whispered within the Fae courts. Your return is welcome but unexpected.”  
Rey shook herself to clear the fog in her brain. “Nobody calls us that anymore. It’s archaic. I prefer lepidopterist. And what do you mean ‘Fae courts’?”  
His low laugh seemed to scuttle across her skin. This man was so dangerous. His power hung in the air between them.  
“So, you don’t even know what you are. Such is fine. All will be revealed in time. Walk with me?” He offered his arm, and she was in no position to refuse. Whatever lurked in this strange world was scarier than the being before her, she decided.  
The walked through the forest, illuminated cerise by the moths around them.  
“Who are you?” her voice shook at the question.  
He glanced down at her, the upturn of his lips lacking emotion. “I go by many names. The King of Moths, Keeper of Worlds, Master of the Veil-“  
“Mothman?” she asked eagerly, forgetting for a moment he wasn’t entirely human or an obvious ally.  
The confusion at her question was made apparent by the furrow of his brow. “No?”  
“Oh,” she muttered. That marked cryptid off the list, then. So what was he? “Well, what am I to call you?”  
“You may refer to me as Kylo Ren, Aurelian.”  
She held up a palm and stopped walking. “That’s not my name or my title. Either call me a lepidopterist, Doctor, or call me Rey.” At his fathomless stare, she stumbled to fill the silence. “Or whatever. Anyways. W-Where am I? What am I doing here?”  
He considered her words for a moment. “You are my… guest,” he said slowly. “We are in the InBetween. Neither earth nor Faerie but suspended in a lost realm amid the two.”  
“You keep saying that. Fae, Faerie. What the hell are you on about?”  
“You’ve heard of the Fae from stories, have you not?”  
She scoffed, grip thoughtlessly tightening on his forearm. “Of course I have. But that’s all they are. Stories. And this is just a dream, isn’t it?”  
“You’ll come to realize in time that dreams are just as dangerous as reality.” The foreboding in his tone did little to quell the nerves of Rey’s stomach.  
“That’s… nice,” she lied, looking sideways and away from him. They continued to walk in silence, the rasp of his wings piquing her interest. “May I?” she used her head to gesture to his wings.  
The pair paused in another clearing, this one lacking the gargantuan flowers. There was a tree stump that he helped her climb onto. She was almost level to him now. He watched her expectantly.  
A trembling hand made toward his wings. At the last moment, she changed her mind, her fingertips pressing gently into his jaw. His gaze snapped to her face.  
It was the way he looked at her. So hungrily, yet miserable. A killer coming upon his injured quarry. Knowing its fate, but perhaps wishing different.  
“In this realm, there are two types of beings,” he began lowly. “There are moths, and there are butterflies.”  
She felt a laugh escape, despite the severity of the situation. Disapproval and affection were at war on his face as she moved to cover her mouth. Her hand trailed across his cheekbones and eye brows. Slowly, his own light-sucking orbs drifted shut, and he leaned into her ministrations. “I’m sorry, but how is that supposed to make sense? They both belong to the _Lepidoptera_ order. I’d get if you said something else like… predator, prey. Hunter, hunted. But _nectarivores_? Those insects can’t even _hurt_ someone.”  
He glided back from her with the softest of sighs. Rey blinked up at him, following forward to eat up whatever distance had built.  
“Beings like _you_ are butterflies. You breathe life and spread joy. Your chrysalis is the sun’s radiance wrapped around you. Your colors, your warmth, draws the world into you. You flutter around, and everyone stops to admire you. Yours is a delicate and fragile beauty, immortalized in the strength you possess.”  
Her amusement died down at the comparison. “That’s not me,” she whispered, withdrawing her hand as if his words and skin had burned her. How could he call her breakable, yet not?  
“Yes, it is.” He said it with such conviction. She almost believed him. “The flap of a butterfly’s wing can cause a hurricane.”  
“I’m nobody,” she choked out.  
“Not to me.”  
His words sent tingles down her spin as warmth blossomed in her chest. “Oh.” She cleared her throat. “If I’m a butterfly, as you claim, then you must be a moth?”  
“Yes, I am a moth, harbinger of destruction and death. Mine is a nocturnal nature, yet so inexplicably drawn to your light. Inevitably scorched by its purity. Such brilliance is nothing a creature of night should ever dream to possess. I am entranced by your luminosity. It is my only beacon in a world of _nothingness_.” He reached out, as if to touch her face. His fingers shook as his hand remained suspended between them. “What a beautiful creation, this butterfly. Surely the Gods of Old come down themselves to marvel.”  
The heat on her face was almost too much to bear. She went to clutch at his hand, pulling it to her chest in earnest. She kissed at the gloved fingers, forcing him closer lest she fall off the tree stump. “You give me too much credit.”  
There was the faint sheen of tears in his eyes as he gazed into hers. “You do not see yourself the way I do. The heavens would go to war for you if only they could, hidden gem as you are.”  
She brought his captured digits to her eyes, one hand going to the edge of the glove. Her hazel gaze flicked to his quickly. It was a silent request, rapid and more a formality. At his lack of protest, she peeled the garment away to reveal callused hands. The strength hidden within them fascinated her.  
Much as she was his specimen, he was also hers.  
They were two beings, enraptured with one another’s mystery.  
“Those moths,” she began in a whisper, running her lips across his digits with each word. “Are they yours?”  
“Yes. They monitor for thinning in the Veil. It must be repaired before it tears. Without the Aurelian, the tattered Veil cannot be mended. It would be the end of humankind as you know it. The Fae are an angry and ravenous conglomerate. The last Aurelian sentenced them to their demise within Faerie. They have waited millennia and more for their revenge.  
“As Keeper of Worlds, it is my duty to ensure the Veil does as it should.”  
Rey swallowed at this. “The Veil?”  
“It is what separates Faerie from earth. Without it, Fae and humans could pass through from realm to realm with ease. The chaos would be unparalleled.”  
“If you’re a Fae, wouldn’t you want the Veil to crumble?” She interlocked their fingers and reached for his other hand to do the same.  
“I care not for revenge. The InBetween has always been my home. Although Fae blood runs through my veins, I have no roots in Faerie or earth. Mine is the burden of the Veil and nothing more.”  
Rey leaned toward him, letting go of one hand to rest her own on his shoulder. As she wobbled, his freed palm found purchase on her hip. “I must be going crazy. Mother always did say I had a vivid imagination,” she whispered, staring intently at his lips. “And if this is a dream, it doesn’t matter what I do.”  
His exhale was a puff of laughter. They were so close; the spice of his breath invaded her senses and her bangs moved with the forced air. “This is no dream, but you are free to do as you please.”  
“Mm,” she hummed, kissing the corner of his mouth.  
He was the beautiful creature, not she.  
“When you wake back in your world, you won’t remember any of this. I will remain here, waiting for you. The time has not yet come, Aurelian. You will find more of my moths throughout the world were the Veil is failing. And there, too, shall you find me.”  
She pulled back slightly to gaze at him. She traced down his cheek as if following an invisible tear track. Without much else thought, she threw herarms around him, crushing her lips to his.  
There was a pause in which he remained stone. Suddenly, his arms clutched at her, one splaying across her back as the other slid from her jaw to cradle her head. They strained against each other, starving and desperate for the warmth they offered.  
_Don’t forget me_ , he seemed to beg.  
_I won’t_ , Rey promised back silently.  
Their lips moved furiously as tears poured down her face. She was so, so sad, but she didn’t know why. Their fervor died down as they fell into a lingering kiss.  
She didn’t really know him, but she knew she loved this echo of a man with every fiber of her being.  
_Such is the curse of the Aurelian._  
Their forehead met, breath mingling and heavy between them. Her chest heaved. “I don’t want to wake up,” she sniffed. The sweetest rubbing of a thumb across her lips. Her cheeks.  
“Fly free, my butterfly.”  
She sobbed into the tenderness of his hand, and the world around her slipped away.

Rey jerked awake to the pounding of her door. Her hands swiped at her cheeks, surprised to find water. _Was I crying in my sleep?_ she wondered.  
At another round of insistent knocking, she stumbled to her door, tangled in her sheets. As she pushed the knob, Rose yanked it the rest of the way open. The smile on her face was so big, it hurt Rey’s cheeks. “Morning, Dr. Jakku, discoverer of the newest species of moths and flowers! How are you this morning.”  
Rey, not the morning person her friend was, gave a small grunt.  
“Any names for the moths?” Rose bounced on the balls of her feet as Rey straightened herself up.  
“Yes, actually.” There was a fuzziness to her brain that she couldn’t seem to shake away. “The Ren Moth.” She nodded approval of her own decision.  
The equipment specialist raised a brow. “And what made you pick that? Where the heck did you even get the name Ren from?”  
Rey’s hand absently fell to her chest, above her thudding heart. “Just… A feeling.”  
_Aurelian_ , she whispered in her mind, not sure where the word had come from. Then, another stray thought that was soon lost to her friend’s chatter.  
_It is not yet my time._

**Author's Note:**

> This was done for Reylo Monster Week Day 4 Mythological Creatures (2018). This was so, so much fun to write! I hope you enjoyed this one-shot! Thanks for stopping by :)  
> And you can find my blog on tumblr at queen-cyanide


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